I am not ashamed that I have been playing this for the last several days. It sucks to be in a rural town though. I have to go a mile to get to the nearest Pokestop.

On a different note, I wonder how easy it would be to troll people playing this game. I don't think the figurines would trick people, but maybe a clever hologram on a piece of plastic film? Or perhaps a more advanced animatronic robot that actually leaps at people playing this game?

"God does not play dice with... Yahtzee!" - Little known quote from Einstein

nowhereman wrote:On a different note, I wonder how easy it would be to troll people playing this game. I don't think the figurines would trick people, but maybe a clever hologram on a piece of plastic film? Or perhaps a more advanced animatronic robot that actually leaps at people playing this game?

Too much effort. Just photoshop a picture of a Mewtwo or a Zapdos found using the app in a really weird location, post it on Reddit, and watch hundreds of people show up.

Yup, I'm officially an old fart. I've only heard of this game today and I already hate it.

Wikipedia wrote:Multiple people also suffered minor injuries from falling while playing...the app led players to congregate near strangers' homes...eleven teenagers became the victims of an armed robbery by four individuals...who explained how they were able to lure the teenagers using beacon.

eidako wrote:Yup, I'm officially an old fart. I've only heard of this game today and I already hate it.

Wikipedia wrote:Multiple people also suffered minor injuries from falling while playing...the app led players to congregate near strangers' homes...eleven teenagers became the victims of an armed robbery by four individuals...who explained how they were able to lure the teenagers using beacon.

Indeed: It is troublesome to see that the makers didn't take into account that the game may cause gamers to harass random unassociated people that happen to live somewhere important. On the plus side: it gets people some exercise and it is statistically likely that some of the players are sorely missing that.

Mikeski wrote:A "What If" update is never late. Nor is it early. It is posted precisely when it should be.

Wikipedia wrote:Multiple people also suffered minor injuries from falling while playing...the app led players to congregate near strangers' homes...eleven teenagers became the victims of an armed robbery by four individuals...who explained how they were able to lure the teenagers using beacon.

I've heard of this game and am otherwise unconcerned with it. Which may be why I first read the last word of the above quote as bacon.

A local radio station (I'm in Australia btw) reported that the police are warning people about how distracting Pokémon Go can be, and not to go to dangerous places, and that people can use it to lure people to mug them for their phones. And before that, Twitter informed me of this tweet:https://twitter.com/krisstraub/status/7 ... 2060844032

It is interesting, why is this so different than the Ingress players (the game engine it uses ). Been an ingress player for a few years now and there weren't near the number of articles about the distraction of the game or the crime opportunity. OR is this because Pokemon is a much bigger and well known brand?

JPatten wrote:It is interesting, why is this so different than the Ingress players (the game engine it uses ). Been an ingress player for a few years now and there weren't near the number of articles about the distraction of the game or the crime opportunity. OR is this because Pokemon is a much bigger and well known brand?

Mostly because of the volume of players (so yes, the brand popularity). And possibly the average age of the players. My FB friends list has far more Pokemon Go players than Ingress, despite skewing towards the tech nerd demographic.

eidako wrote:Yup, I'm officially an old fart. I've only heard of this game today and I already hate it.

Me too! (copyright 1987, AOL chat rooms)

Wasn't it bad enough that everyone walked around with their face embedded in their smartphone screen? Now they're going to be doing augmentedVR everywhere?

I can't wait to hack some game so it overwrites the DON'TWALK lights with "WALK" and all the VR-players get whacked by a bus or two.

The game only uses AR during pokemon capture segments, which people tend to stop walking for. Walking around you just get a street map. Not even counting the massive battery drain the game has which encourages use of a battery saver feature that blanks the screen anyway for most of your game.

I was disappointed with Ingress as it didn't have enough players to make it really interesting (it was nowhere close to what the trailer showed). I played it for a long time, but I didn't know anyone else playing, I rarely saw signs of other people, it was simply too boring. Now Pokemon Go came out and it's everything that Ingress wasn't. I was never into Pokemon, but I'm playing this like crazy because it's Ingress done right. Seeing so many people everywhere around me playing the same thing and joining in on common goals, that's all that Ingress promised and never delivered.

eidako wrote:Yup, I'm officially an old fart. I've only heard of this game today and I already hate it.

Wikipedia wrote:Multiple people also suffered minor injuries from falling while playing...the app led players to congregate near strangers' homes...eleven teenagers became the victims of an armed robbery by four individuals...who explained how they were able to lure the teenagers using beacon.

Indeed: It is troublesome to see that the makers didn't take into account that the game may cause gamers to harass random unassociated people that happen to live somewhere important. On the plus side: it gets people some exercise and it is statistically likely that some of the players are sorely missing that.

They did, to a certain extent. Over time there were rules for Ingress portals that were supposed to minimize trespassing or interference with various activities (Schools, Firestations and Police stations were all supposed to be unacceptable by the time I started playing). In addition, there is (or at least was) a path for requesting removal of a portal because it was on your property. However, the staff that was responsible for approving portals was, at best, overworked, and approvals were not always checked carefully.

Neil_Boekend wrote:Indeed: It is troublesome to see that the makers didn't take into account that the game may cause gamers to harass random unassociated people that happen to live somewhere important.

And thank goodness no-one has invented a game where people visit deterministically pseudorandom locations that may harass different unassociated people every day...

I reckon they just need to increase the range while standing still, maybe a small gradual increase. And come up with some kind of backlog system for when you're driving, so that drivers don't have the stupid incentive to look at their phone and catch a 'mon before it gets away.

Maybe a "driver mode" that shuts off the screen, but keeps tracking location until the mode it turned back off again. Then allow them to tag all the pokestops they passed and catch all the 'mons that spawned along the way.

Fine with me. The main problem with the app is needing to look at it all the time causing accidents. The drive mode would still require you to go out and do stuff, which is mission accomplished for them. You'd still need to park in range to battle a gym. And the time would be limited by battery being drained by GPS, and the Android OS annoying 30-minute limit before it forces standby.

I don't know anything about Ingress but maybe that's the aspect of the game that makes it not feel like a Pokemon game. Well, I haven't played a Pokemon game in generations, but since this is only 1st Gen Pokemon then it should have a much more familiar feel. Ingress players will admit that this is actually Ingress + Pokemon, not just Pokemon?

Yeah, the comic... um, comic. *taps* Comic *bus*

nowhereman wrote:I am not ashamed that I have been playing this for the last several days. It sucks to be in a rural town though. I have to go a mile to get to the nearest Pokestop.

If you're rural don't you have to go a mile to get to the nearest anything? Why would Pokemon GO be any different?

RogueCynic wrote:Also, I find it digitally inhumane to capture innocent digital creatures and train them to digitally fight for non-digital human amusement.

teelo wrote:I reckon they just need to increase the range while standing still, maybe a small gradual increase. And come up with some kind of backlog system for when you're driving, so that drivers don't have the stupid incentive to look at their phone and catch a 'mon before it gets away.

Maybe a "driver mode" that shuts off the screen, but keeps tracking location until the mode it turned back off again. Then allow them to tag all the pokestops they passed and catch all the 'mons that spawned along the way.

Ingress has a "Speedlock" If your average speed goes above about 35 then you cannot access any game functions other than XM collection. That is to discourage you from DOING anything with the phone while driving, but if you leave the game running and just not touch it you can still collect the XM (energy to use game functions.) THen once the average speed drops low enough functions are available again.

JPatten wrote:Ingress has a "Speedlock" If your average speed goes above about 35 then you cannot access any game functions other than XM collection. That is to discourage you from DOING anything with the phone while driving, but if you leave the game running and just not touch it you can still collect the XM (energy to use game functions.) THen once the average speed drops low enough functions are available again.

If they do, then it's broken. I routinely hack passing portals at 40-45mph without a problem.* The biggest issue is timing, as the interactive radius of the portal passes by rather quickly at that speed.

JPatten wrote:Ingress has a "Speedlock" If your average speed goes above about 35 then you cannot access any game functions other than XM collection. That is to discourage you from DOING anything with the phone while driving, but if you leave the game running and just not touch it you can still collect the XM (energy to use game functions.) THen once the average speed drops low enough functions are available again.

That sounds like a good idea, but 35 mph seems like too high a threshold. It's like you're only allowed to play the game while driving if you're in a school zone.

JPatten wrote:Ingress has a "Speedlock" If your average speed goes above about 35 then you cannot access any game functions other than XM collection. That is to discourage you from DOING anything with the phone while driving, but if you leave the game running and just not touch it you can still collect the XM (energy to use game functions.) THen once the average speed drops low enough functions are available again.

My girlfriend reported that a co-worker drove to work *very* slowly yesterday in order to make her phone think she was walking, so that <thing> would happen properly. Knowing the person in question, this doesn't actually surprise me.

CharlieP wrote:My girlfriend reported that a co-worker drove to work *very* slowly yesterday in order to make her phone think she was walking, so that <thing> would happen properly. Knowing the person in question, this doesn't actually surprise me.

I have been known to drive very slowly a few times, (if no traffic around) to avoid speedlocking when going after portals that are just a bit far apart for a walk or when on the way somewhere.